How to Hide an Airplane

Hide it in plane sight. Back when Bob worked for Boeing, around 1970, Boeing LOST a whole 727 for more than 2 weeks. They didn't lose it in the jungles of Asia, they lost it in the middle of their own Renton airplane factory.

For more than 2 weeks thousands of Boeing mechanics, engineers, and managers searched the facility from end to end numerous times. The plane was nowhere to be found. Manufacturing records showed that it was about 90% complete, not ready to fly. Maybe it was towed to another part of Renton airport? Boeing searched the whole airport. The plane was not to be found. They finally sent notifications to all Boeing employees including myself who worked at another Boeing facility. They asked us to inspect all other 727 planes and hidden corners trying to find it. It just had VANISHED!

After being missing for more than 2 weeks some Boeing mechanic noticed that not much wok was being done to one of the airplanes nearing the end of their manufacturing assembly line. When he asked factory management they looked on their records and said that lots of work had been done. “Nope” said the mechanic. Nobody has touched it. So they went out and looked again at the airplane.

Someone had accidentally put a wrong number sign on the plane. Thousands of Engineers, Managers, and mechanics had literally ducked their heads under its wings while they searched in vein for the plane. Everyone had checked the number sign, and said to himself “nope, not this one.” They all look the same. It had been “LOST” in the middle of Boeing's assembly line for 2 weeks with thousands of airplane experts looking for it.

That is how you hide an airplane. You change its number. POOF! Vanished!

The missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 could be hiding in plane sight at any busy airport in the world. Thousands of knowledgeable experts and security people would look and check its number. “Nope, Not the plane we are looking for.”

The pilots would have to shut off the planes' transponder and ACARS system and fly out of ground radar range over the ocean. Then they could load new fake flight numbers and ID numbers into the transponder and turn it back on. POOF! Plane gone!

Pilots would then turn the transponder back on and show up on a regular air route, calling the next flight controllers as they enter the next country. The “NEW” plane would be seen flying regular commercial air routs with a fake flight plan and numbers. At night they could land at any busy airport as a regular fuel stop on a charter or maintenance flight. Nobody would ask any questions.

There are thousands of 777s, and they all look the same!

In the dark they could repaint the tail numbers to match their fake ID transponder codes, and use a little spray paint to cover the Malaysian Airlines logs. Or, have some stick on white plastic sign material saying “ACME Charters.” A mechanic could replace the engine ACARS boxes with reprogrammed boxes. That all would take maybe an hour in the dark at the maintenance end of the airport. By dawn, its just “not that plane,” not even up close. Off they go to Iran, Somalia, Libya, or even Kansas. Nobody would ask any questions about the plane.

When you want to hide a plane, hide it in plane sight. Not even Boeing could find it, not even when they bonk their head on its wings.

UPDATE April 3, 2014.

A recent cell phone photo from missing IBM employee gives a GPS location as a hanger in Diego Garcia. All these phony "searches" in the Indian Ocean are a red herring intended to divert attention from any real investigation or search. See news story.

Flight 370. Piracy and Conspiracy

How do you hide a big Boeing 777 airplane? Change its number and POOF! Its vanished.

More than a week ago as I write this there was a big Boeing 777 airplane with over 230 people that disappeared on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, China. A week ago Bob posted on several on-line discussions that the first place to look for Malaysian Airlines flight 370 is in Somalia or perhaps Iran.

The plane flew normally northward until they exited air traffic tracking from Malaysia. The pilots said goodbye to Malaysian air traffic control, “All right. Good night.” On a normal flight they would have immediately switched radio frequency and called air traffic control from Viet Nam. They did not do that. They turned off their automatic radio transponders, reversed course, and flew West by Southwest, passing just north of Malaysia toward the Indian ocean. The disappearance was carefully timed so that neither the Malaysians nor the Viet Namese would notice them missing. Nobody would report the plane missing until the next afternoon when it failed to arrive at Beijing.

The governments of Malaysia, the US, China, and several other nations wasted a week and a whole lot of money searching in the wrong places and refusing to search in the obvious places. Makes us wonder.

The pilots flying the Malaysian airplane flew out over the Indian ocean beyond ground radar range. They turned off their automatic data transmitter, but its a little like a cell phone. It “pings” the system periodically even while “off.” In a cell phone you have to take the batter out or it can be tracked. In an airplane data system the pilots knew how to go down through the floor and shut off data transmitter circuit breakers, but didn't know how to “take the batteries out” without killing the engines. That didn't really matter because it takes days for technicians in other nations to find the “ping” data.

The obvious thing for the pilots to do next would have been to reprogram their flight numbers and turn their automatic data responders back on. Pilots do that reprogramming every day when they prepare the plane for its next flight. Every pilot is trained how to do it. They program the autopilot with a new flight plan through GPS coordinate “way points” in the sky. They program the transponder with airline and flight numbers. They radio to air traffic control identifying themselves and the intended flight path.

All the pirate pilots had to do was to reprogram the plane data transmitter with a new FAKE plane number. Every day at busy airports they have hundreds of private airplanes, charter flights, maintenance flights headed for repair shops, etc. Air traffic controllers handle them routinely. Nobody looks at the airplane to compare its painted on tail number with the numbers in the transponder. An airplane passing by, or stopping for fuel, does not get inspected by border or customs officials unless the pilots try to leave the airport. Considering how little scrutiny fake or stolen passports get in that part of the world, even that would not be hard. Remember the plane was not yet reported missing so nobody in aviation would be looking for a strange plane.

If pirates planned ahead, and this event was well planned ahead, they could easily have rented an airplane maintenance hanger in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Indonesia, or even Malaysia. Fly in with a fake number. Go to the hanger, off load captive passengers (or not) repaint Malaysian Airline tail markings with some white spray paint, paint a fake Tail Number, and the plane has a completely new ID. A little advance planning could easily have ground crew waiting for them to arrive, or on board.

After the tail number was changed they could buy fuel and fly absolutely anywhere they wanted to go, Europe, North America, Kansas, anywhere at all. Where pirates most likely would want to go is Somalia or Iran, dens of piracy.

None of the major media and big government law enforcement will talked about the obvious piracy until a week later and they still won't talk about the obvious ways to steal an airplane. They spent a week hiding information and “searching” in the wrong direction. Why? What was the government involvement in keeping these secret for days and days?

We will find out later. Stay tuned.